I had just finished posting my latest entry when I felt my wheelchair moving. I thought I was dizzy because I have not been getting enough sleep lately. A short while later, I realised that it was another earthquake when I heard my door rattling. I quickly woke the maid up.

My neighbours were fast. They had already locked their apartment door and were waiting for the elevator. I chose to stay in the apartment. There was no point rushing to get down since everybody else will be waiting for the elevator too. This is in fact a bad move since they could get trapped in the lift should the building tilt.

This temblor is stronger than the one on Boxing Day and lasted longer. It began at approximately 0011 and lasted a good two minutes or more. When the taskbar clock showed 0013, the apartment was still swaying. The water in the tank in my toilet sloshed about and spilled over the edge. I looked down from my window and saw many neighbours lingering in the driveway, barely 5 meters from the buildings that are 22 storeys high….

And this great post:

Bloggers Are Morons

Blogging has fried our brains. Instead of evacuating after the tremor, we, bloggers staying in high rise apartments, sit here n blog about it, oblivious to the risk should the building topple over or collapse. I, for one, was furiously typing away as the floor swayed under me instead of making plans to leave my apartment. Should I laugh or cry at this stupidity that has befallen me?

: Amazing how quickly news from ground-level comes up on the internet. Shortly after the earthquake off Jakarta, blogs started updating. See this:

I’ve just been messaged by my mom who’s with Oxfam in Sri Lanka and she says that the tsunami warning sirens have been sounded 2 hours ago. The country’s emergency serivces have been put on standby. I’ve phoned my volunteer coordinator at VolunteerSriLanka in Habantota on the South Coast of Sri Lanka – and some IDP camp residents have been evacuated about 5km away from the coastal areas – thats about 3 camps I’ve heard so far.

Meanwhile Peter Griffin & Dina Mehta have rallied and sent out an email to all current SEA EAT volunteers in the region and those still involved with the relief operation to standby to start blogging alerts via txt msgs & email….

Phone lines have apparently got jammed once again in Sri Lanka & everyone is just panicking instead of remaining calm until we all know what’s going on. Shall keep you all posted as i get news….

UPDATE – 10.18PM – Bahrain Time (+3GMT) :

All Sri Lankans living on the coast have been asked to move away from the coast within an hour. This was about a half an hour ago. The information has been distributed fairly widely. The Commissioner of Police has also stated that they are taking steps to stop traffic on the Galle Road. People fleeing also asked to watch out for looters.

So Iím in bed with Hubby, when suddenly I felt my world start to rock.

Weíre mid-way through an episode of Frasier when suddenly we felt the tremors. It was pretty freaky! We were watching telly in bed and I heard loud creaks and felt my bed swaying back and forth. For a nanosecond I almost thought my cat was playing under the bed again ó yes, and she had gained super strengthÖ Look, itís past midnight, Iím sleepy, my brainís not all there, ok?

Turns out thereís a quake measuring 8.5 on the richter scale near North Sumatra. And we felt it all the way here in Punggol….

I hear dogs barking incessantly. Iím remembering all the movies and tv shows about animal instincts and Iím getting weirded out. Meanwhile, Hubby goes ìhey, this is so funî. I stare at him like heís grown a third eye….

brown suggests I get a camera phone, so that : ìcan snap pic with phone, send via email to flickr plus also to blog. Too cool. macam ëLive from Mordorí î

Blogging is the ultimate form of self-expression and personal communicationóunedited and truly you. Vlog It! is the first PC software designed specifically to help you create the most powerful kind of blog ñ a video blog. Even if you have no video experience or technical skills, Vlog It! makes it easy. And the impact is not only memorable, it’s inspirational.http://www.seriousmagic.com/products/vlogit/

http://dougkenline.blogspot.com Doug Kenline

sorry jeff….i seen this at bill hobbs blog and thought, i gotta tell jarvis about this…..then i see that hobbs got it from you in the first place…….my bad……dk

http://khemenu.blogspot.com/ Ari Tai

re: emergency broadcast retooled.
I can’t think of a time in even desperately poor countries (and in some frightful slums) that I wasn’t within shouting distance of someone carrying a cell phone. Most cellphones have SMS (short message service). I wonder why the local operators have not coordinated with their governments to “get the word out” whenever a populace needs to be notified to do something? (like, “Move to high ground, RIGHT NOW”). Both broadcast SMS and recorded voice.

Faith was smart. Ran downstairs and let me do the dangerous job of blogging it (no tremors felt at my residence, so I was safe).
There were many others blogging from their homes, like one chap who wrote on a forum: “My house is shaking!!!”
Run, you fool.

http://colofednet.blogspot.com Ted

Isn’t it interesting (in a boring sort of way) the only people who think bloggers are morons are the bluehaired, antiquated Marxists of the legacy media who are still living in the Great Depression, “think” LBJ was a great president & will be found dead in their tie-die T-shirts with reefer on their last breath?
Viva la Reagan revolucion!

http://www.buzzmachine.com Jeff Jarvis

Uh, Ted, the guy was joking about himself. Nobody is saying bloggers are morons. It’s self-deprecating humor. But the, if I have to explain it….

http://isntapundit.com dipnut

Steel-framed buildings don’t fall over in earthquakes. Instead, the external masonry peels off and kills everyone on the sidewalk. You’re much safer inside, blogging.

http://www.petertan.com/blog/ Peter

Jeff,
Thank you for the mention. I am glad that you see that as humour. It was meant to be like that in a morbid kind of way. Some do not and took it for all it was worth. I would run if I could but my escape options are rather limited when I am on a wheelchair and 20 floors up. We are all safe and well here but please pray for those who are affected at Nias Island and other parts of Indonesia.
Warmest regards,
The Moronic Blogger